Fairy Tail Volume 5

“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” – Eden Phillpotts

A new collection in the Fairy Tail series has been released, with twelve more episodes of magical fun released in what is the first collection of new material in over a year.

The first few episodes in this section appear to be small filler editions. In one story celestial wizard Lucy is told she will have a fateful encounter, in another water wizard Juvia tries to use a magic potion to make stripping ice maker Gray fall in love with her, and in a third Lucy discovers that she is being stalked.

However, by the end of this third episode we begin to glimpse the main plot. A trio of evil “Dark Guilds” called the Baram Alliance, who control lots of smaller Dark Guilds, are now working together and Fairy Tail is ordered to destroy one of the big three: Oracion Seis. This group contains just six very powerful wizards who are planning to gain control of the forbidden magic “Nirvana”.

Thus Lucy, Natsu, Gray, Erza and Happy team up with members of three other Guilds in order to take on this menace. Amongst these other members is a young girl called Wendy Marvell and her flying cat Charle. She, like Natsu, is a Dragon Slayer, mastering air and specialising in healing magic. However, it is not long before Oracion Seis decide to use Wendy to heal someone familiar with an evil past.

While the filler at the start is a bit annoying, you could argue that, given with the gap between the releases, it makes for a gentle re-entry into the series so that you can familiarise yourself with the characters once more.

Once you get into the Oracion Seis section of the story however, the usual format of action, battles and so on begins to take shape. There are also plenty of interesting twists and turns, as well as many new characters to enjoy, old characters brought back, and new magic ideas brought to life. There are one or two humorous moments, but it is mostly about the action. This collection starts slow, but builds up nicely, with plenty more to look forward to in the next edition of episodes.

Regarding extras, there are episode commentaries, textless opening and closings, and trailers.